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On March 22, Subaru announced the successor to the 2010 Impreza WRX. The car would undergo a considerable refresh after the timidly received previous year model failed to capture consumer’s hearts. Personally, I felt like the car revealed was a huge letdown. It failed to carry on traditional Impreza design traits and language. It seemed to have forgotten its world rally racing heritage. And yet it didn’t seem to be taking this route to incorporate current market trends either. In my view, it just plain didn’t work. So, I took it to myself to modify Subaru’s press photos into the car I would have wanted to see. Having never photoshoped a car before, at worst it would prove to be an interesting exercise.

Last week saw the release of the iPad unto an expectant world. The media has seen gone full steam ahead dissecting every single aspect of this device and speculating on its impact and eventual success. It’s as would be expected from an Apple launch: the eagerness, the desire, the barely controlled hysteria. And yet, not everything was the same.

This is not the first time that Apple has launched a new category of device, we’ve seen it before with the iPod and iPhone. Product refreshes are easy, you already have an established base of loyal customers. But a new product category requires a bit more faith on our part. And this time, Apple has had a harder time than ever before in gaining it.

There are a lot of things not to like about the iPad, all of which have been covered extensively by the media. But there’s a lot to like too. I do not doubt that this device will be a success and a game changer on several levels. Amazon has been the first to feel the momentum growing. So why all the hesitation?

What if the Archos 604 personal media player had been symmetrical? I know that’s the first thing I wished it had been when it was launched. Technical considerations aside – Would it had been more appealing?

For well over a year now I have been paying close attention to the Head Mounted Display market and what it offers to both consumers and industry. Back in 2006 I spent a year working on Augmented Reality, which required me to look closely unto this type of device. What I saw then, and the developments since, have been quite interesting.

Today, we have a growing niche within the HMD industry for products aimed as accesories to today’s portable media players. Before this, HMDs were reserved for virtual reality. Seeing this opportunity, several companies have jumped to fill this new niche. And yet, there isn’t one among them that can claim a resounding success.

Several generations of these mass-market HMDs have already come and gone, and each has made their contribution to the genre. However, even after years of evolution, all currently available HMDs seen to be missing the point entirely. I have yet to see an HMD that can be called stylish. I have yet to see one that can be called desirable. These seemingly simple concepts seem to escape HMD designers and as a result we keep getting products we do not want. Even the latest devices presented at CES 08′ at the beginning of the year fail to deliver in this regard, and while making their own advances and collaborations still leave us wanting.

Have you ever seen an HMD resembling the one rendered above? Regrettably, there are none, nor does it look like there will be any time soon.

Read on for an outlook on a market that doesn’t seem to grasp the wants and needs of its target audience…

Of course I’d rather its sides and bottom were in aluminium instead of white plastic, and I would love the keyboard/screen cover I added… but anyway, it feels great to know you’re on the right track and to have one’s ideas and concepts corroborated.

Curiously AMtek, a Taiwanese tablet pc developer, announced on the same week a new tablet of their own, which looks suspiciously like the Scribbler. The only official page on it I could find can be found here.